As technology advances, mankind has become increasingly proficient at communicating ideas, needs, and desires expediently, especially in times of emergency, or when timely receipt of a message is critical. Society has created an emergency infrastructure, such as the 911 emergency system, to rapidly communicate with others for assistance. Similarly, inventions such as cellular telephones, pagers, and internet-based email have made much of society's communication nearly instantaneous.
With each technological advancement, communications systems have become faster, more accurate and reliable, significantly altering the way in which society functions as a whole. In the healthcare world, faster communication has resulted in more lives being saved since appropriate assistance may be rendered in a timelier manner. The shock trauma system is predicated on a golden 1-hour response in which, because of improved communication, responses to emergency life threatening situations are expedited.
On a more routine scale, patients, nurses, doctors, and on-call Practitioners are all required to communicate swiftly and effectively on a daily basis in order to respond to changes in clinical conditions efficiently and accurately. Likewise, in an event where additional expertise is requested, expedient communication to the senior clinician may be crucial. Unfortunately, this type of communication has been problematic, but with the advent of enhanced communication technology this can be greatly improved. After hours communication is often less efficient due to a variety of reasons, including a smaller staff on-hand, given that several nurses and doctors are on-call off site rather than at the hospital or clinical setting. Traditionally, a series of phone calls are made to a predetermined set of nurse practitioners and doctors who are on-call. In the event a doctor fails to respond, or is incapable of arriving on the scene in time, it often takes additional time and effort to locate and contact a back-up physician. While effective, this method is relatively slow when compared to the modern standards of instantaneous and automated messaging. In an environment where seconds can mean the difference between life and death, rapid, clear, concise communication is paramount.
Thus there is a need for an interactive communication system focusing on expediting the communication process across multiple communication channels while maintaining clear and concise interactions between all connected parties, especially with respect to critical initial notifications and also to secondary recipients automatically in the event that the initial target recipient of a message is unable or unwilling to respond to a call to action.